[Python-Dev] Encodings

[Guido van Rossum]

> Please... toss the changeable default. If everybody knows the default
> encoding is "ascii" and they want something else, then they know what to do.
> But when the default can change, then it can't be relied on. The coder is
> going to have to do an explicit encoding anyways. So why have a default?

I couldn't have said it better.  It's okay for now to have it
changeable at the C level -- with endless caveats that it should be
set only once before any use, and marked as an experimental feature.
But the Python access and the reliance on the environment should go.

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://dinsdale.python.org/~guido/)